This comprehensive work, available as a single volume or a three volume set, presents the history of research on health effects of ionizing radiation until 1980. Its aim is to record the people involved and their ideas, as well as the contexts, institutions, instrumentation, and conclusions of their research. The major sections of the book are naturally occurring radioactive elements, manmade radioisotopes, inhalation toxicology, environment, instrumentation, therapy and nuclear medicine, and concluding comments. The section on naturally occurring radioactive elements treats radium, uranium, radon, polonium, and thorium, and includes effects of radioactive materials on the health of workers in the uranium mining industry. The part on manmade radioisotopes discusses the results of the many laboratories' and universities' experiments on various radioactive isotopes. In a section of over 700 pages, the material on the environment highlights the ecological effects of producing nuclear materials, of nuclear test fallout, and the medical research inspired by the fallout. All chapters contain extensive bibliographies. The work is a unique and enormous achievement, which Newell Stannard was highly qualified to author, since he was involved in so much of it himself through his association with the University of Rochester and the Manhattan Project.